Hi all I just discovered this thread and I wanted to share some theories I heard. I'm going to be lazy and not read the entire thread so if anyone covered this previously sorry. Also I lurk a lot so please excuse my noob posting skills. Oh BTW, RichardKimble, please don't get mad at me for taking apart your message and expressing my theories. You were on the last page and you looked like you had a lot of good points and some I could argue. Nothing personal, I just liked your post
Anyways
I agree with you on this theory because if I understand you right his silent hill experience could have happened while he was dying like the bad ending in Silent hill 1.
I also agree with this because if you noticed all of the monsters of Silent hill represent some kind of symbolic message about the town or person. The red pyramid head is constantly killing maria representing James killing his Mary. The Leg Mannequins represent james sexual tension and frustration. Before you start laughing hear me out. When Mary became ill she became a lifeless and ridden body to james. The leg mannequins are composed of all legs and are wearing clothes similar to mary's. Also maria's tempting james and the rape scene with pyramid head and the mannequins reinforce this and the fact that pyramid head is a part of james persona. The Caged Prisoner Grille Demon could represent two things, james's own emotional prison that he cannot escape or Mary's death bed. The cage is a symbol of pain and torture which james along with everyone except for Laura (which I will get to later) are experiencing. Or for theory two, the frame looks like a sadistic representation of Mary's death bed. Even maria is in the cage at the end and when she is defeated she falls to the ground and resumes the role of mary and asks james to put her out of her misery. If you take close notice to the nurses in this Silent hill the you can see that they are the only nurses wear mini-skirts thus reinforcing james's own lust, and his sexual frustration and tension.
I agree with you that Maria is a representation of Mary but I think she's just made to die to make james suffer over and over and remind him of what he did but to drag james in the flames. the whole closure thing I haven't really thought about but it sounds solid.
I don't think that Silent Hill is for the dead. It lures people into the town like it did to Harry and Heather, only Heather was more forced by outside forces. I think that everyone that goes to Silent Hill all have problems with their own pasts and Silent Hill calls to them to bring out their sins. Samael likes to prod at people's inter secretes until they are forced to come face to face with it and have to deal with it. When some dies in Silent Hill they are actually being killed.
Like this is the same thing I said earlier and I agree 100%.
Laura is of complete innocence which is why she doesn't see anything wrong with the town. She could probably see the most beautiful place on earth while it looks like hell for others. Silent Hill feeds off of other people's sins and creates a world for them based off of that. Since Laura is free of any kind of sin, she has no evil force to deal with. When she locked james in the room, it probably looked like a vacant room to her with nothing wrong with it while James sees monsters in it and begs her to open it up. Why she is in the town is a complete mystery to me since Silent Hill draws sinners. Maybe she is a resident of the town?
I think that the whole symbolism with Walter Sullivan is that he didn't feel any shred of guilt for the murders he committed. This could represent Eddie's angle or maybe some kind to james not to feel guilt about what he did?
For the monsters in Silent Hill 3, I think they, like james, represents some thing in heather's life. the split-faced hounds and worm represents heather's double personality, in other words it represents heather also being Alessa. the bandages on the dogs also represent the bandages on Alessa. I don't want to get into the subject of Valtiel. Numb Bodies I think represents heather having god inside her. They look similar to an undeveloped fetus and look very similar to the fetus she aborts at the end. The Closers kind of look like giant teddy bears referring to Alessia's childhood and her bedroom which she was stuck in most of her life. Insane Cancers remind me of the growth of the god inside of her and that the god inside her is nothing but cancer for mankind. It also represents that just like cancer depends humanity, the monsters of silent hill depend on the human power of imagination. Nurses represent Alessia's former life of which she was in a coma until the arrival of Cheryl.
Well those are some theories I believe in. I got most of them from this plot analysis Http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/file/silent_hill_3_plot.txt which I find most of them to make alot of sense. If anyone wants to dissect my post and argue my point be my guest, in fact I encourage it. I love a good discussion. Thanks again RichardKimble.
